Compilation of Venu Issues - "Is the Venu totally broken!?"

Lets ge this thing rolling!

'Totally broken' seems a bit too much for me.

From the problems you describe I only encounter the latest message showing instead of the entire thread for conversations. For a watch that focusses a bit more on the 'smart' side of things compared to most Garmin watches I expected more regarding chat notification functions. For example even on my 55 euro Amazfit Bip I could block specific conversations from showing on the watch (through a 3rd party app, but still ) If I've got multiple notifications from the same person on the Venu I can first see a short version of the latest notification, but when you click on it it will open the longer version of an older message. This clearly shows that somehow multiple messages are stored, but you can't see them properly.

The way notifications work at the moment they're kinda useless to me, unless a person only sends 1 specific longer message instead of multiple shorter ones. I almost always still have to pick up my phone to read what it's all about and that's a shame.

Regarding the drawing time, I only use one specific 3rd party watch face (Crystal) and the drawing time is fast and has been for months. Is the problem with specific 3rd party watch faces or with specific Venu watches then?

I don't use any Android alarms, but what do you mean with the clunky Google Calendar connectivity? I always get the notification about upcoming events that are planned within google calendar right on time. Updates from that work fine, as well as all my syncing and updating, without any persistent notifications. 

Anyway I agree that there are things that can be improved by Garmin to make the watch better. It's however not as devastating as the OP seems to suggest.

My problem is persistent, random bluetooth disconnects/reconnects. I mean dozens an hour. And sometimes just using my Redmi Note 9 will make it go through disconnect/reconnect cycles. Unacceptable. 

No firstbeat sleep. I find it especially ironic how the forerunner 245 costs less than the Venu yet gets more firstbeat training features, but the Venu doesn't get the firstbeat sleep metric. They use the excuse that the Venu is lifestyle not training. If that's the case, why don't we have firstbeat sleep?

Don't you just mean the notifications that you get when you walk out of range of your phone and back into it?

If so, just turn those notifications off. It's a normal thing. (on your venu: Settings- > phone -> connection notifications)

No I do not mean when I walk out of range of my phone. I am holding the phone in my hand about 4 inches from the watch. I get persistent BT disconnect/reconnect cycles. Sometimes just using the phone causes the cycling. Others have reported the same problem and makes the phone useless for receiving alerts, the main reason I use a smart watch. PLEASE FIX!!

It just started doing it again. Phone 4 inches from watch. Then disconnect from BT followed by immediate reconnect. It usually isn't that fast a reconnect and once it starts it continues all day.

Not a SW problem but have tech support read the Forums. They are clueless about reported problems whose only fix is in engineering and waste my time making me go through fixes that will never work.

When setting up the watch include a Warning that always on will not work during the hours you indicated as your sleep hours. I wasted a whole day trying to fix this with tech support who also doesn't know this. Pathetic.

If the watch can't get a GPS fix use the location set in the phone. Things like sunrise/sunset don't work if the watch can't get a GPS reading. That's silly. I have a knee injury and don't get out much, not to mention Covid restrictions.